Life-guard for cars



(NoModeL) J. J. BEALS. LIFE GUARD FOR GARS.

No. 522,099. Patented June 26, 1894.

g e w e m $467770 CIJWZAY, 1

PJW w UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPH J. BEALS, OF CAMBRIDGE, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO WALLACE L.BROADBENT, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

LIFE-GUARD FOR CARS SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No.522,099,'dated June 26, 1894.

Application filed December 26,1893. Serial No. 494,709. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JOSEPH J. 13mm, of Cambridge, county of Middlesex,State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Life-Guards forStreet-Railway Cars, of which the following description, in connectionwith the accompanying drawings, is a specification,like letters on thedrawings representing like parts.

My invention relates, to a life guard for street railway cars the objectbeing to produce a life saving appliance that will not interfere in anyway with the running of the car and will effectually guard against theper son being struck by the car body or run over by the wheels.

The invention is embodied in a guard composed of a flexible net work andmeans for supporting the same in inclined position extending from thetop of the dash board of the car to the surface of the ground at somedistance in advance of the dash board, the said net work being connectedat its upper end with the dash board or witha suitable frame securelyfastened thereto, and said not work being connected at its lower endwith a frame or stretcher adapted to lie close to the surface of theground and beingitself connected by pivoted arms with the sill of thecar or some part of the rigid frame work of the car body at or near thelower end of the dash board. The frame at the lower end of the net is soconstructedas to run easily on the surface of the ground or pavement incase it comes in contact therewith, and by having the said framepivotally connected by the arms with the car body it can rise and fallif necessary to accommodate itself to an irregular surface or toaccommodate the rocking motion of the car body in case it becomesexcessive. The frames at the lower and upper ends of the net areconnected by a guy rope preferably of steel or other metallic cable,which cable extends down along each side edge of the net, across thebottom thereof, and has its ends connected at the top frame by a turnbuckle by which its length may be adjusted to determine thelimit of thedescent of the frame at the lower end of the net. This guy rope not onlythus sustains the frame work at the lower end of the net but alsoconside of it by short links a.

tributes to the maintenance of the net in' stretched condition.Additional flexible and elastic supports extend from the top to thebottom frames at the rear of the net, in order to give the sameadditional support in case a heavy body falls upon or comes in contactwith its front surface.

There are other features that contribute to the efficient operation ofthe apparatus which will be described more fully hereinafter.

- Figure 1 is a perspective view of the front portion of a streetrailwaycar provided with .a life guard embodying this invention; Fig. 2

an elevation of a portion of th'emechanism at the rear or platform sideof the dash board tobe hereinafter described; Fig. 3 an enlargedsectional detail of the framework at the top and bottom of the net andparts co-operating therewith; Fig. 4 a plan View of the top frame of thelife guard, and Fig. 5 an enlarged detail showing the construction ofthe network.

The life guardforming the subject of this invention comprises a net work0. preferably made of steel wire of the construction shown in Fig. 5,consisting of diamond shaped loops or meshes a enchained together inlineup anddown the net as indicated at a and each loop being connectedwith the loops at each This construction produces a net work of greatflexibility but without tendency to stretch so as to become baggy or outof shape. The upper end of this net workis connected with a frame 1)adapted to be securely fastened to the upper part of the dashboard A ofthe car, and its lower end is connected as will be described with across bar or stretcher c which may be a metal rod or tube, preferablycovered with rubber to soften the efiect of any blow which may be struckby it. The said cross bar 0 forms a part of a frame comprising a secondcross bar 0 slightly at the rear of the cross bar a and having strungupon it a number of rolls d which may be made of hard wood and arepreferably spherical in shape so as to run easily over an uneven surfacein case they come in contact therewith owing to any irregularity in theroad bed or to excessive up and down motion of the end of the car. Thesaid frame 0, o ,.is sustained at some distance in advance of the dashboard by means of arms 6 having their lower ends conneeted,or as hereinshown made integralwith the cross bar of said frame and pivotallyconnected as at c with the sill of the car body, or as herein shown withthe transverse beam 13 bracketed below the end of the platform of theear. The net is thus sustained in inclined position extending from apoint at or near the road surface and a short distance in advance of thecar, rearwardly and upwardly to the top of the dash board A and thusaffording a complete screen to prevent any part of the car from strikinga person on the track. In order to insure a more thorough support forthe net and to relieve the net work itself from tensile strain a guyrope preferably of steel is provided as shown at f extending from thecorners of the .top frame I) to the cross bar 0 at the lower end of thenet, and along the said cross bar as shown at f Fig. 3, the upper endsof said guy rope being connected together at the rear of the cross barof the frame 11 preferably by a turn buckle f (see Fig. 4) or adjustingdevice by which the said rope may have its length adjusted in order tosupport the cross bar 0 at the proper position with relation to the roadsurface. The proper adjustment of the guy rope f will cause the frame 0,0 at the lower end of the net to travel along close to the road surfacewithout coming in actual contact with it, except at points where theroad surface rises above the normal level or except when the end of thecar plunges downward, at which times the rolls d will'engage the roadsurface and prevent the frame from dragging thereon. The edges of thenet (1 are connected with the said guy rope f and the bottom of the netis connected with the transverse portion f of said guy rope which isitself securely fastened to the cross bar a from point to pointthroughout its length. The braces or supporting arms 6 incline downwardfrom the car toward the frame 0, 0 as shown, and consequently thetendency of any heavy body striking near the bar 0 or lower end of thenet is to force the same nearer to the ground and there is therefore nodanger of the guard rising up upon and passing over a recumbent person.If, however, abody collides with more or less violence with the middlepart of the net, the tendency is for the net to curve backward thusdrawing the lower end up from the ground and forming a kind of purse orbag to catch and retain the body struck by the middle part of the net.In order to guard against too great a collapse of the net under suchcircumstances, a number of flexible and elastic supports are stretchedfrom top to bottom at the rear of the net as best shown in Fig. 3, saidsupports being shown in this instance as consisting of wire ropes 9'connected at their lower end either with the cross bar 0 or preferablyas shown with the cross bar 0 and at the upper end with the cross bar ofthe frame I) said supports having a longitudinal elastic or springportion 9 to render them somewhat yielding, while at the same time theyafford an efficient support to prevent the middle portion of the net afrom sagging inward.

The parts thus far described are automatic in their action either totake up a recumbent body from the road surface or to catch and retain aperson who may be standing or erect when struck by the advancing net,which opposes a yielding resistance to the inertia of the body and thuscatches the same, without violence, and atthe same time by its yieldingforms a pocket or bag to prevent the body from being thrown out by thereaction after the inertia is overcome. In order to secure thisretaining action of the not upon a body caught by it, means are providedfor quickly raising the lower frame work 0, 0 or for retaining it raisedin case it has been automatically raised by the collapse of the net whenstriking the body. For this purpose a lifting device is used consistingof a rope h shown in this instance as having one end made fast at ]L2 tothe top frame I) from which the said rope extends down around a pulley7L3 near the forward end of the arm e and thence up to the top of thedash board and over a pulley 72 see Fig. 2, and thence to the middle ofthe dash board and over a pulley h where the end of the rope may beconnected with a weight t'. Two such lifting ropes are shown, one ateach side of the apparatus, both meeting and connected with the singleweightvl at the middle of the dash board, as best shown in Fig. 2. Thesaid weight may run in a casing (not shown) and is preferably providedat its lower end with a stirrup i so that the attendant on the platformmay if necessary depress the said weight and thus through the ropes hlift the lower frame 0, c and thus retain the net in partially collapsedor bag-like condition.

In case the lower frame 0, 0 is thrown up by the impact of the bodyagainst the middle portion of the net as before described the weight t'will quickly descend and will afford a resistance to the return of theframe 0, 0 to its normal position and as shown in this instance a catch70 is provided to engage with the top of the weight when it is thusdropped by the rising of the lower part of the net, so that it willretain the net in collapsed or baglike form until the said catch isreleased. Thus the net insures the catching of a person without severeshock and retaining the said person securely in the not until the carcan be stopped.

The net is of such construction that it can be readily seized by aperson struck by it, thus making it easy for a person to avoid injury,and even without voluntary action on the part of the person struck, itoperates effectively to catch the person without strikin g a violentblow, and without throwing the person off violently to the ground to bepossibly struck asecond time.

The frame 0, 0 with its supporting braces e may be folded up close tothe dash board when the apparatus is not in use, and the said frame maybe 'easily raised by the attendant on the car if necessary to pass overany small obstruction on the road bed.

The net is so open as not to obscure materially any signs that may bepainted on the dash board, or the light of the head lamp commonly usedat night in the front dash board of the car, and there is ample room forsuch headlight between the net and the dashboard.

I claim 1. The net a adapted to be connected at its upper end with thecar body, and the frame or stretcher connected with the lower endthereof, and braces extending from said stretcher to the car bodycombined with the guy. rope extending along the side edges and acrossthe bottom ofv the net and having its ends adj ustably connectedtogether near the upper end of the net, substantially asand for thepurpose described.

2. The net connected at its upper end with the car body, and the frameand stretcher connected with the lower end ofthe said net, and pivotedbraces extending therefrom to the car body, combined with the liftingropes for said stretcher and weight connected therewith, substantiallyas and for the purpose de- 30 scribed. I

3. The net connected at its upper end with the car body and the frameand stretcher connected with the lower end of the said net, and pivotedbraces extending therefrom to the car body, combined with the'liftingropes for said stretcher and weight connected therewith, and the catchcooperating with said weight, substantially as and for the purposedescribed.

4. A life guard for street railway carscomprising net supporting framesone near the top of the dash board and the other near the ground inadvance of the former, combined with a net composed of diamond shapedwire loops enchained together in line up and down the net and each loopof a given line of loops being connected by short links with the loopsof the adjacent lines at each side thereof, substantially as described.

' In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification inthe presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JOSEPH J. BEALS. Witnesses:

J 0s. P. LIVERMORE,

M. E. HILL.

